Pages

Sunday, June 5, 2011

Making Bolu Kukus

My dream came true. I have broken the Bolu Kukus curse throughout these years. After way too many failed attempts in making the 'laughing" Bolu Kukus (Indonesian steamed cup cakes), finally this evening I managed to make Bolu Kukus that perfectly rose and cracked in the middle.

I had been browsing the recipes for Bolu Kukus in the past two days. I religiously watched quite a number of tutorials in YouTube and read a lot of baking forums and blogs about making perfect shaped Bolu Kukus. Today, I decided to try a popular Bolu Kukus recipe created by Mrs. Fatma Bahalwan, a renown baking guru and inspirational entrepreneur in Indonesia. Her recipe is called 10-Minutes Bolu Kukus(Bolu Kukus 10 menit) simply because we only need 10 minutes to make the cake batter and another 10 minutes to steam them. Surprisingly, in this recipe, there is no soda required to make these steamed cakes. This recipe is so simple, hassle-free and (hopefully) failure-proof.

Kue Kukus or Bolu Kukus.

10-Minutes Bolu Kukus

Ingredients:

450gr Granulated sugar

500gr Flour

1 tsp Double-acting baking powder (BPDA)

4 Eggs

300cc Water/coconut milk/liquid milk

1 tbsp Emulsifier/ovalet

1 tsp Vanilla powder (optional)

Tutorial:

1. Before anything, cover the steamer's lid with clean cloth. This is to absorb the water produced from the hot steam later on. We don't want the steamer's water drops into our cake batter hence affects the shape of the cakes' final results.

Covering the steamer's lid with clean cloth.

2. Heat the steamer with big fire.

3. With maximum mixer speed, cream all the ingredients in a dry and clean container for 10 minutes until the cake batter is thickened and not easily drop from the mixer's attachments. We can also use a little bit of food coloring or cocoa powder too to make rainbow steamed cakes.

4. Pour the cake batter in the Bolu Kukus molds, which already lined with paper muffin cups or parchment paper, until almost full.

5. Steam the cakes in a very hot steamer for 10 minutes. Use big fire to steam the cake and do not open the steamer's lid before the cakes are done. Give extra space between the molds when steaming the cakes as these cakes need a lot of steams to perfectly rise and crack in the middle.

Don't squeeze in too many molds in the steamer. Give space.

6. After 10 minutes, take the cakes out from the steamer. Let them cool down for a while before releasing them from the molds.

Straight from the steamer: Rise and "Laugh".

** This recipe makes about 35-40 Bolu Kukus depending on the size of the molds. I used half recipe today and I had 19 Bolu Kukus in total.

I'm so happy with the results of my steamed cakes today. They looked so pretty and their texture was very soft. The tricks here, I guess, are the exact measurement of all the ingredients and correct techniques in mixing and steaming the cakes. The cake batter has to be really thick so it can produce perfect 'laughing' shape of steamed cakes. Also, make sure that the steamer is already very hot (has a lot of steams coming out of it) before we put the cakes inside.

My Mom-in-Law will take few of my Boku Kukus to a family gathering to celebrate the Dumpling Festival in Muar tomorrow and my Mom in Indonesia already asked for this recipe after I told her my big success today.